A study on the improvements in reading outcome of EFL learners taking the intensive IELTS exam preparation course at AMES english language center

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐẶNG THU HƯƠNG A STUDY ON THE IMPROVEMENTS I

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

ĐẶNG THU HƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE IMPROVEMENTS IN READING OUTCOME OF EFL LEARNERS TAKING THE INTENSIVE IELTS EXAM PREPARATION

COURSE AT AMES ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER

Nghiên cứu về mức độ tiến bộ với kỹ năng Đọc của học viên sau khi tham gia khóa học luyện thi chứng chỉ IELTS tại Học viện Anh ngữ AMES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi, 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

ĐẶNG THU HƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE IMPROVEMENTS IN READING OUTCOME OF EFL LEARNERS TAKING THE INTENSIVE IELTS EXAM PREPARATION

COURSE AT AMES ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER

Nghiên cứu về mức độ tiến bộ với kỹ năng Đọc của học viên sau khi tham gia khóa học luyện thi chứng chỉ IELTS tại Học viện Anh ngữ AMES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Prof Dr Nguyễn Hoà

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my respectable supervisor, Prof Dr Nguyen Hoa for his restless and sympathetic encouragement, valuable advice and patient guidance until the completion of this study

My sincere thanks also go to my dear colleagues at AMES Language Center for all their help, support and encouragement when I encountered difficulties

I wish to acknowledge my thankfulness to the two IELTS preparation classes for their enthusiastic participation in the project

Finally, I am deeply indebted to my beloved parents, my daughter, my siblings, and my post-graduate friends for their sacrifice, encouragement and care

ABSTRACT

In recent time, there has been an increasing number of those who want to sit

an IELTS test to get a desirable score for their academic, recruitment or admission purposes This has resulted in the fact that many private English language schools in Vietnam have included IELTS preparation courses in their training program These schools usually state strongly about the effectiveness of their IELTS preparation classes; however, there has been little investigation on this so far This study is intended to explore the improvements made by IELTS learners in terms of (1) their reading comprehension & test-taking strategies, and (2) their IELTS Reading band scores

The participants selected for the study included 30 learners from two IELTS reading preparation classes at AMES English language center in Hanoi Through the instruments of pre-and post-tests, survey questionnaires and interviews for learners, the study discovered that after taking a 42-hour preparation course, the learners have well mastered the IELTS reading strategies, which have resulted in their significant improvement in IELTS Reading band scores In addition, regarding the explicit strategy instruction given, the students felt welcome as they could see that the improvements they achieved are mainly attributed by the teacher‘s careful modeling and instruction for each type of questions in the IELTS Reading Test

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the Study 1

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 2

3 Research Questions 3

4 Methodology of the Study 3

5 Scope of the study 4

6 Significance of the study 4

7 Organization of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

I Reading and reading comprehension 6

1 Reading 6

2 Reading process 6

3 Reading comprehension 8

II Reading Strategies 8

1 Reading strategies 8

2 Strategy use and reading results 10

III Strategy Instruction 10

1 Strategy instruction in previous literature 10

2 Strategy instruction procedures 11

3 The roles of modelling and scaffolding in strategy instruction 14

4 Contextualization and explicitness in strategy instruction 14

IV The IELTS Reading Test 15

1 What is IELTS? 15

2 IELTS Academic Reading 17

3 IELTS Reading strategies 18

V Test preparation 19

1 Definition of test preparation 19

2 Types of test preparation 20

3 Previous studies on improvements of learners at test preparation language courses 21

VI Review of previous studies on reading comprehension strategies among Vietnamese learners 21

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 23

I Context of the study 23

1 Setting of the study 23

2 The IELTS Intensive Reading Course 23

II Research Questions 26

III Methodology 27

1 Participants 27

2 Instruments 29

IV Procedures of data analysis 31

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 32

I Results addressing research question 1: Improvements on IELTS reading strategies 32

I Reading strategies with highest and lowest ratings before and after the course 33

II Reading strategies with highest and lowest gains and gains in groups of strategies36 III Results from the open-ended questions 38

II Results addressing research question 2: Improvements on IELTS band scores 40

III Results addressing research question 3: Learners‘ attitudes towards the explicit reading strategy instruction 42

1 Results from open-ended questions in questionnaires 42

2 Results from qualitative data – Interview with high-score and low-score achieving students 44

IV Summary 44

PART C: CONCLUSION 45

1 Conclusion 45

2 Implications of the study 46

3 Limitations of the study 46

4 Suggestions for further study 46

REFERENCES 48

APPENDICES 54

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1 How IELTS Academic Reading module is scored 17

Table 2 IELTS Reading Course with explicit strategy instruction 26

Table 3 Occupation and exposure to English of learners 28

Table 4 Reasons for taking IELTS Test of the learners 28

Table 5 Comparison of reading strategies used by learners before and after the Reading Intensive Course 33

Table 6 The highest rated reading strategies before and after the course 35

Table 7 The lowest rated reading strategies before and after the course 36

Table 8 Reading strategies with highest and lowest gains after the course 36

Table 9 Average of mean and gain of reading strategies in groups 37

Table 10 IELTS reading pre- and post-test scores 40

Figure 1 Learner strategies training cycle 13

Figure 2 The IELTS Academic Procedures and Components 16

Figure 3 Students' biggest problem with IELTS Reading Test before the course 39

Figure 4 Students' biggest improvements in reading after the course 39

Figure 5 Number of students with different gains in the IELTS Reading Test 41

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the Study

On the global basis, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is generally recognized as an international benchmark of proficiency in English Scores on IELTS are widely used as a part of recruitment or admission procedures set by educational institutions, employers, professional registration bodies and government immigration agencies IELTS candidature, in particular, has witnessed a rapid growth in recent years with over 1.5 million test-takers every year including thousands of Vietnamese candidates To meet the demands of the IELTS preparation market and help more and more candidates succeed in the IELTS test, private language schools in big cities like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City which offer corresponding IELTS preparation courses are developing at an accelerating rate The IELTS test consists of two modules: the Academic and General training modules As the Academic module is designed for those seeking admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses like all the participants involved in this essay, this study focuses on the Academic reading module

From personal observation, the researcher realized that many Vietnamese learners of English, in general, and pre-intermediate students at American English School (AMES), a private English language school in Hanoi, Vietnam, in particular, after several years of learning English, turn out to be word-by-word readers That is

to say, students construct the meaning of the text by decoding at word and sentence levels When encountering long and complicated reading passages of the IELTS Academic reading module, students are confused about the way to achieve understanding and gain information from the text They tend to read very slowly making an attempt to understand the meaning of every single word, or they hardly show any effort to guess meanings of unknown lexis from reading context In addition, they frequently try to translate the reading passages into Vietnamese As a result, many of them fail to finish the test under the constraint of time In other

cases, students lose marks for not paying attention to the number of words required for the reading task One possible explanation for the above-mentioned problems is that they are not equipped with adequate and efficient reading strategies even though students have already acquired a range of vocabulary and grammar after years of learning English

Teaching and learning to read effectively under the test condition is a central issue in most IELTS reading preparation courses in language schools However, there is a dearth of studies analyzing the progress of these EFL learners after taking such courses in Vietnam As a result, this study is an attempt to investigate whether the intensive reading preparation course can be effective in raising the learners‘ awareness, encouraging their use of the strategies and improving their IELTS band scores of the Academic Reading module This will hopefully give an insight into the potential of explicit strategy instruction in extending the range of reading strategies that learners can employ in the domain of IELTS reading and it can also assist teachers and educators in reviewing IELTS teaching methodology and EFL teaching in general

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

This research is carried out with the aim of assessing the level of learners‘ improvements on academic reading performance in the IELTS test after taking the intensive preparation course at American English School (AMES) In other words,

by comparing the input and output of one learner and comparing the outputs among learners, the research will evaluate the effectiveness of the IELTS reading course at AMES which is based on explicit reading comprehension strategies and test-taking strategies; whether it could offer candidates an efficient preparation and improve chances for learners to gain high scores in the real test

Conjugant with the above-mentioned aim, there are a number of research objectives required to work on They are presented as follows:

- Define reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading strategy instruction, describe their characteristics, and present several models of classification

- Indicate the purpose, format and components of the IELTS test with their highlights

- Investigate factors related to the Academic Reading Module involved in the IELTS test with the necessary reading strategies to achieve higher band score in this module

- Apply and analyze the process of teaching IELTS reading strategies to improve learners‘ reading performance

- Explore the learners‘ attitudes towards IELTS reading strategy instruction

- Give recommendations to other teachers of English on how to teach students to employ IELTS reading strategies efficiently to improve their scores in the IELTS Academic Reading Module

2 To what extent do learners improve their IELTS band scores of Academic Reading module after completing the test preparation course with explicit reading strategy instruction at AMES English Language Center?

3 What are students’ attitudes towards the explicit strategy instruction in IELTS Reading preparation course?

4 Methodology of the Study

It has been decided that the study will make use of both quantitative and qualitative data This is to serve the ultimate goal of identifying the level of improvements the students acquire after taking the reading course with explicit strategy instruction at AMES Quantitative data are to be collected with the medium

of two questionnaires supplying the researchers with figures to analyze learners‘ thoughts and approaches In addition, the reading scores of the pre-tests and post-tests were also utilized as they provided a quick and easy way of looking at their

improvements made by IELTS learners Meanwhile, qualitative data will be obtained through the means of an interview after the post-test The detail of the methodology applied in the study is discussed in Chapter 2 of Part B

5 Scope of the study

American English School (AMES) takes pride in many years of experience

in training high quality English according to international standards AMES provides English language training for all school & university students, working people and large enterprises in Vietnam AMES English training programs include: English for preschoolers, young learners & junior, IELTS, TOEFL iBT, TOEIC, and teacher training course (TESOL)

For the IELTS preparation program, AMES offers courses for two different age groups: IELTS preparation for teens (12-15 years old) and IELTS preparation for adults (over 16) This study focuses on the second course of intensive 160-hour IELTS preparation with the goal of achieving 6.0+ output Although candidates taking the IELTS test are assessed for four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, in order to match the scope and time, the research will focus only on the level of progress of the students with the Reading module

6 Significance of the study

In Vietnam, there are thousands of IELTS tests taken in one year However, there is a significant limitation in terms of number as well as publication of studies carried out in this field This research is hence conducted with the hope of contributing to the knowledge of IELTS trainers who want to have a closer view into how their trainees would actually perform in the Reading Academic module for better IELTS preparation instruction The paper consequently suggests some practical recommendations to people of interest who plan to sit for the test so that they could make more efficient use of reading strategies in the IELTS test

7 Organization of the study

It is necessary to provide an overview of the research to the audience so that the information and discussion can be well kept track of According to the aims and objectives that have been discussed and presented in the sections above, the study will consist of three parts which relate to the following issues:

Part A: Introduction presents a brief introduction of the rationale, the aims

and objectives, scope, significance, methods and organization of the study

Part B: Development, the main part of the study and is composed of three

chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: Literature Review provides the theoretical knowledge and

results from the recent studies for the issues relevant to the field under investigated

Chapter 2: Methodology describes the processes of sampling, designing

research instruments, collecting and analyzing data employed in the study

Chapter 3: Results and Discussion presents the discussion of the findings

of the study

Part C: Conclusion summarizes the main findings, presents the limitations

of the study, and suggestions for further studies

In addition, the study also includes the sections of References which displays the sources of referenced information and Appendices which presents the

survey questionnaires, and the pre- and post-test papers

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

The chapter provides the theoretical knowledge and results from recent studies for the issues relevant to the field under investigation The chapter covers the following main areas: (1) Reading and reading comprehension, (2) Reading strategies, (3) Reading strategy instruction, (4) The IELTS Reading test, (5) Test preparation, and (6) Review of previous studies on reading comprehension strategies among Vietnamese students

I Reading and reading comprehension

1 Reading

In our daily life nowadays one can easily recognize the presence of reading and its role Reading can live up to the personal purpose of gaining information or for leisure Scholars agree that reading is a mental process which can be complicated This process is activated with the engagement of the reader, the text, and the interaction between the reader and the text (Rumelhart, 1997), and happens when this interaction creates or recreates meaningful discourse (Silberstein, 1994) Whether the meaning is recreated and to what extent or in which way primarily depends on the reconstruction of the reader – the cognitive subject of the text, as a language user (Goodman, 1967)

Regarding learning processes in general and particularly language learning, reading accounts for a prerequisite and fundamental part as it aids the learning of other skills When it comes to learning English as a second language (ESL) or as a foreign language (EFL), reading is deemed as the most crucial language skill to learners (Robertson, 1983) This is because reading does not only provide the tool for acquiring knowledge but also aids the enrichment of language proficiency (Krashen, 1985)

2 Reading process

Reading can be approached in different ways, and the three most commonly used reading models are bottom-up model, top-down model and interactive model

Bottom-up reading model is heavily focused on the text while the reader has

a rather passive role The reader in this model reconstructs the meaning based on recognizing and decoding words of the text (Barnett, 1989) As a result, reading process follows a pattern from part to whole, or bottom-up Meaning interpretation mainly rests on morpho-phonemic and morpho-syntactic processing (Eskey, 2005), as opposed to the lack of consideration for sentence-context effects and previous knowledge of text topic, which is the drawback of this model (Samuel and Kamil, 1988)

Top-down reading model refers to a more reader-driven approach of reading

On the contrary to bottom-up model, in top-down model the reader reconstructs the meaning not only based on letter and word recognition but also in relation with syntactic cues and semantic cues available (Goodman, 1967) Using top-down model, the reader also put into practice his or her prior knowledge together with the use of written text at a higher level, with predicting, sampling, confirming, and correcting in reading comprehension (Barnett, 1989) Hence, the interaction between the reader and the text in this approach is of higher level than in botto m-

up one

Although being two mostly complete opposites, bottom-up and top-down reading processes have their each essential role in EFL/ESL reading Koda (2005) asserted that the level of bottom-up and top-down processes is used in a specific reading context is determined by the text‘s nature, the reader‘s reading purposes, their available background knowledge of the text topic, their language proficiency

as well as their attitudes and interest in reading that text

As two contrasting reading models gaining in popularity, the criticism towards them accumulated, necessitating the advent of the third one, the interactive reading model This model emphasizes on the role of both the reader and the text Interactive reading model was devised in order to combine the higher-level processing and the lower-level processing in acquiring knowledge from various sources in reading process Meaning is reconstructed from the use of three different cueing systems, namely graph phonic, syntactic and semantic systems (Rumelhart, 1977)

3 Reading comprehension

Basically, reading comprehension refers to the understanding of a reader with a text Grellet (1981) suggested a definition of reading comprehension in his work ―Understanding a written text means extracting the required information from

it as efficiently as possible‖ (p 3) The RAND Reading Study Group defined reading comprehension as ―the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language‖ (2002, p 11)

From some perspectives, reading comprehension can be viewed as a product

of the combined use of some particular language components such as spelling, phonological and orthographic awareness, phonics knowledge and listening comprehension, vocabulary and verbal intelligence b) However, there are two essential components of reading comprehension that elude decoding and listening comprehension, which are fluency and strategies Fluency, according to Wolf and Bowers (1999), concerns with the speed of word recognition so that the reader can process the joint meaning between the previous and later words Strategies, however, helps the reader in dealing with rather long and/or complex text, as well as when difficulties or obstacles arise in reading process

II Reading Strategies

1 Reading strategies

When language learners encounter language learning tasks like reading, they can apply several different language learning strategies to complete the tasks Therefore, as part of language learning strategies, reading strategies have all of the characteristics of language learning strategies

Since the late 1970s, second or foreign language learners have been taught to use different reading strategies in order to improve their reading comprehension ability Reading strategies are defined as "the mental operations involved when readers purposefully approach a text and make sense of what they read" (Barnett, 1988) These processes may include skimming, scanning, guessing the meaning of

unknown words from context, making inferences about the text, etc In fact, reading strategies show how readers conceive a task, what textual cues they attend to, how they make sense of what they read, and what they do when they do not understand According to Anderson (1991), reading strategies are deliberate, cognitive steps that learners take in acquiring, storing, and retrieving new information Although the distinction between reading ‗skills‘ and reading ‗strategies‘ is not always clear, and sometimes they are used interchangeably, in this study the term reading strategies refer to those mental processes that readers consciously choose to use in accomplishing reading tasks (Cohen, 1986)

Based on various criteria, scholars have categorized reading strategies differently Many identify two broad categories of strategies including those employed to create meaning of a text as a framework for global understanding and those employed to monitor comprehension and take action as needed On the other hand, other researchers in reading strategies studies have used different strategies types when classifying reading strategies For instance, Sheorey & Mokhtari (2001) used a cognitive framework to group reading strategies into three sub-categories: Global Reading Strategies, Problem-Solving Reading Strategies and Support Reading Strategies Their classification scheme is followed by many researchers:

(i) Global Reading Strategies: generalized, intentional reading strategies aimed at setting the stage for the reading act Examples of this type of strategies are

―having a purpose in mind, evaluating what to read or ignore, noting text characteristics, guessing what the material is about, etc.‖

(ii) Problem-Solving Strategies: localized, focused techniques used when problems develop in understanding textual information These strategies provide readers with action plans that allow them to navigate through the text skillfully Examples of these strategies include re-reading for better comprehension, going back when losing concentration, adjusting speed of reading when the text becomes difficult or easy, pausing and thinking about reading, etc In general, in a second-language context, it is believed that readers often have to use more problem-solving strategies to construct the meaning of a text, due to limited linguistic knowledge

(iii) Support Reading Strategies: provide the support mechanisms aimed at sustaining responses to reading Examples of these strategies are use of outside reference materials such as dictionaries, taking notes, highlighting key information

to better comprehend the text, etc

2 Strategy use and reading results

The relation between using strategies while reading, especially in reading comprehension tests In a study conducted by Carrell (1989), it was found out that high-scoring students did a better job at using global strategies; this is a similar result to those of Block (1992) and Al-Melhi (1999) Meanwhile, Anderson (1991) revealed that the strategies the efficient and less efficient students used were almost the same However, the key factor lay in the frequency of applying those strategies

in their reading process Also, the results were determined by when and how these students implement reading strategies Skilled readers employ a range of appropriate strategies, moving from one to the other as they read to get the meaning

of the text (Cohen, 1998) while less successful learners use strategies in a random, unconnected and inconsistent manner (Chamot et al., 1996)

Therefore, the key to teaching reading strategies is through a combined strategies-instructional approach rather than as discrete strategies taught independently of one another (Hudson, 2007) In addition, it has been indicated in several studies that using efficient and appropriate strategies depends clearly on the reader‘s characteristics (gender, age, relevant background knowledge and proficiency level), the text to be read (topic familiarity, the language of the text, text layout and structure, the length of the text) and the nature of the question items asked about it

III Strategy Instruction

1 Strategy instruction in previous literature

Generally, reading strategies can be learned and acquired, and if a learner has been trained to acquire specific techniques of taking tests, that learner is expected to score significantly higher in tests than learners with same proficiency level in the

subject area that have not learned any strategies (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Cohen, 1998; Phakiti, 2003; Rogers & Harley, 1999) The aforementioned studies revealed that strategy explicit instruction along with the use of such strategies lead to development in test-takers‘ performance, particularly reading comprehension results, for learners with different proficiency levels

2 Strategy instruction procedures

As learning strategy instruction has been receiving a great interest among scholars, there are a significant number of studies either proposing or recommending the procedures of strategy instruction Winograd and Hare (1988) introduced five components needed in an effective strategy instruction, including (1) description of the strategy, (2) explanation of the strategy‘s importance and benefits when in use, (3) demonstration of use, (4) clarification of utilization context, and (5) teaching of how to evaluate the success of strategy use By a same vein, Beckman (2002) suggested a few steps for reading teachers to follow in order

to achieve effective reading strategy instruction:

(i) Describe the strategy: Students obtain an understanding of the strategy and its purpose—why it is important, when it can be used, and how to use it (ii) Model its use: The teacher models the strategy, explaining to the students how to perform it

(iii) Provide sample assisted practice time: The teacher monitors, provides cues, and gives feedback Practice results in automaticity so the student does not have to ―think‖ about using the strategy

(iv) Promote student self-monitoring and evaluation of personal strategy use Students will likely use the strategy if they see how it works for them; it will become part of their learning schema

(v) Encourage continued use and generalization of the strategy Students are encouraged to try the strategy in other learning situations

In general, there has been a consensus that three primary steps involved in strategy instruction are Orientation, Modelling, and Application (Winograd and

Hare, 1988; Duffy, Roehler, and Herrmann, 1988; Grant, 1994) In the first step, Orientation, the students are informed about the strategy, what it is and why it should be used At the stage of Modelling, the students are demonstrated how to use the strategy by observing the teacher performing each step and simultaneously thinking aloud of strategy implementation Finally, Application enables the students

to carry out the execution of the strategy learned either in groups or individually By this way, they can find out themselves how effective the strategy can be and how efficiently their use of the strategy is This stage can also enforce the confidence of the students with strategy utilization and gives them incentives for further implementation

In terms of cycle, strategy instruction was devised by Macaro in his 2001

book Learner strategies in second and foreign language classroom, and is

presented in Figure 2 below (adapted from Macaro, 2001, p 176)

Figure 1 Learner strategies training cycle

It can be seen from these models that it is of uttermost necessity for teachers to include awareness raising in the procedures of learning strategy instruction Researchers agree that this step should be incorporated with the introduction of the strategy so that the students are able to gain the perceptions and cognitive acquisition

of the strategy Besides, it is worth noting that self-monitoring and evaluation should

be given appropriate attention in strategy instruction procedures After all, the responsibility of learning had better be shifted to the learners With regards to teachers‘ role in strategy instruction, focus is put on modelling and scaffolding

1 Raise the awareness

of the

Exploration

of possible Stratgies available

3 Modelling

by teacher and/or other students

4

Combining strategies for a specific purpose or task

5

Application

of strategies with scaffolded support

6 Initial evaluation

3 The roles of modelling and scaffolding in strategy instruction

Modelling plays a tremendous role in the cycle of stategy instruction (Winograd and Hare, 1988; Duffy, Roehler, and Herrmann, 1988; Grant, 1994) Modelling means that the teacher demonstrates a new approach to or concept in learning so that students can observe and learn (Eggen and Kauchak, 2001) In other words, any time in the class a teacher demonstrate a concept or approach, modelling occurs (Haston, 2007) With regards with the students, modelling is the process of accomplishing new knowledge or information or skills via observation, instead of direct experience (Holland and Kobasigawa, 1980) Assessing the value of modelling, studies point out that modelling is one of the most effective modes of learning when one person wishes to acquire a new idea or skill (Bandura, 1986), for the reason that students are not only shown a new concept but they can also observe how the teachers approach the problem To put it in another way, the students are enabled to observe the teacher‘s thought process in modelling (Salisu and Ransom, 2014) And this is one of the key points in learning reading

Another substantial component of the strategy instruction cycle is scaffolding Scaffolding entails the teacher to offer support to an appropriate extent

so that learners are able to gain advances in their learning process To put it in another way, by scaffolding teachers first model the strategy use, provide explanations and examples; once the students get more hold of the strategy, teachers lessen their involvement by just giving a prompt or a hint, thereby enabling the students to have more control and responsibility with learning (Rubin, 2014)

4 Contextualization and explicitness in strategy instruction

According to Macaro (2001), learning strategy instruction is characterized by some features, among which the most important are contextualization, and explicitness Contextualization indicates that strategies need to be instructed in the context of a language course, otherwise training would achieve no ends

In addition, explicitness is another essential component in learning strategy training Explicit strategy instruction is a term, according to Van Keer (2004), coining to ―the purposive activities of a teacher to make children fully aware of the active character of the reading process and of the importance of comprehension-

fostering and monitoring activities‖ (p 38) In the same vein as Macaro, Cohen and colleagues (1996), and Chamot (2004) both stressed the importance of explicit training in effective language learning strategy instruction (Jurkovic, 2010) Furthermore, in terms of teaching reading comprehension, Coyne et al (2009) made

a conclusion that there is a relation between learner outcome and explicitness in teachers‘ reading strategy instruction, particularly among less efficient readers

IV The IELTS Reading Test

1 What is IELTS?

IELTS, or International English Testing System, as Hughes (2003) mentioned is a typical example of proficiency tests The function of the IELTS test like other proficiency tests is to screen test-takers for language ability regardless of any training they may have experienced in that language Therefore, it is believed to

be a helpful testing tool in a number of circumstances to decide whether a student is likely to cope with a course of specialist study (Harrison, 1983) Specifically, IELTS is widely accepted as a proof of English language skills used for recruitment

or admission purposes set by educational institutions, employers, professional registration bodies and government immigration agencies (Hallows, Lisboa and Unwin, 2006) IELTS is jointly managed by the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL), the British Council and IDP: IELTS Australia According to British Council, the number of IELTS tests taken in the last year alone

is over 2.9 million The high-stakes nature of the test, coupled with its rapid growth, has attracted a burgeoning international industry in test preparation courses and text books

As there is no requirements for age, the candidates of IELTS can vary from schoolchildren who may want to study overseas, university students who do courses

in English, to people who are already in employment but may seek for promotions These differing purposes of taking the test are satisfied with two versions: Academic and General Training and test-takers can choose either of them Both share the same Listening and Speaking modules, and differ in the other two, namely Reading and Writing modules In this study, the focal point is on the IELTS Academic reading Hereby, IELTS mentioned in the following parts is implied as IELTS Academic The IELTS procedure and components, then, can be visualized

by the following chart

Academic Writing (Time: 60 minutes)

Listening (Time: approximately 30 minutes)

Candidate listen to a number of recorded texts These include a mixture of monologues and conversations and feature a variety of English accents

The recording is heard only once, and candidates are given time to read the questions and write down their answers

Reading (Time: 60 minutes) There are three reading passages with tasks Texts are taken from books, magazines, journals and newspapers, all written for a non-specialist audience At least one of the texts contains a detailed argument

The first task requires candidates to write a description of at least 150 words This is based on material found in a chart, table, graph or diagram and demonstrates their ability to summarize the key features of the input

For the second task, candidates write a short essay of at least

250 words in response to a statement or question They are expected to demonstrate an ability to present a position, construct an argument and discuss issues

Speaking (Time: 11-14 minutes) The test is a face-to-face interview Candidates are assessed on their use of spoken English to answer short questions to speak at length on a familiar topic, and also

to interact with the examiner

(Information for Candidates, Introducing IELTS to test takers)

Figure 2 The IELTS Academic Procedures and Components

IELTS scores range from band 0 to band 9, each of which corresponds to a descriptive statement which summarizes the candidate‘s English language competence There is no pass or fail score, each of the skills is assessed distinctively and then added to make up the overall band

2 IELTS Academic Reading

Academic Reading module, as its name suggest, deals with issues which are

of great importance to those who want to enter undergraduate or postgraduate courses or seeking professional registration There are three reading passages totaling approximately 2,500 words; each of them is followed by 13 to 14 items or questions, adding up to 40 questions (Cullen, French & Jakeman, n.d.) The passages can be taken from a variety of authentic sources of information, including journals, books, magazines and newspapers, and topics vary widely, but are all of

―academic nature‖ The 40 items are a selection of various question types, including short-answer questions, completion of a specific structure (note, summary, sentence, flowchart, or table), labelling a diagram, matching headings for identified paragraphs, multiple-choice, classification, identification of writer‘s views/ claims – YES/NO/NOT GIVEN, identification of information in the text – TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN, and matching lists/phrases (Black & Capel, n.d.)

The candidates are required to complete this module within 60 minutes Regarding scoring, one correct answer equals one point, making up a certain number out of 40, and this ratio is then converted into a band score from 0 to 9 with half scores With this band score, the test taker‘s capability of English, hereby Reading skill, can be interpreted as of ‗Did not attempt the test‘ (band 0), to ‗expert user‘ (band 9) (Cambridge, n.d.) The following table depicts the number of correct answers needed to get the desired band score

It should be kept in mind that the purpose of the test is to assess one‘s ability of language, not their academic or professional knowledge of a specific field The candidates are not required to possess specialized background knowledge to succeed in the IELTS Reading test (Garbutt & O‘Sullivan, 1991)

3 IELTS Reading strategies

Ying (2011) suggested that the IELTS reading test requires the candidate to acquire both reading strategies and test-taking strategies

As a proficiency test, IELTS assesses test takers‘ ability of reading comprehension To accomplish that purpose, candidates are highly recommended to obtain a number of reading strategies, of which the two most dominant are expeditious reading and careful reading (Ying, 2011) Expeditious reading refers to the concept of reading quickly yet effectively, and involves skimming for the general idea, scanning for specific items (Schwartz, 1984, as cited in Ying, 2011) Meanwhile, careful reading denotes reading slowly and thoroughly in order to get hold of details from the text It is an indispensable strategy for test takers to make inferences, such as to identify the writer‘s views and some other detailed information (Hughes, 2000, as cited in Ying, 2011) In terms of reading strategies required for the IELTS Reading test, there are a number of studies showing that expeditious reading and careful reading play important roles in processing the test For instance, Bax (2013) concluded that test takers who employ expeditious reading strategies, especially to detect the part of text that contains information for the question items as quickly as possible are more likely to succeed than those who do not On the other hand, the study by Krishman (2011) claimed that the IELTS Reading test rather focuses on careful reading, or thorough reading, at the local level whereas assessment of expeditious reading is overlooked to some extent, which implies that candidates are suggested to obtain the former reading skill However, Chalmers and Walkinshaw (2011) pointed out that the two reading skills are deployed with the same weight by candidates In other words, expeditious reading is utilized first to situate the part of information, and then careful reading is applied to find out the answers to the tasks involved (Chalmers & Walkinshaw, 2011)

Depending on the type of the task and the question that being asked, takers employ certain test-taking strategies differently (Anderson, 1991) This finding is compatible with the results presented in Nosrati‘s study (2015) investigating reading test-taking strategies in IELTS: test-takers used more frequently the strategies of elimination and making educated guesses for multiple-choice task, while activating background knowledge is the most frequent strategy in matching task, and rereading the passage and making inferences strategies reported

test-to be employed more frequently for YES/NOT/NOT GIVEN task

In addition, some researchers such as Bailey (2009) and Bax (2013) argued that it is of high importance for test takers to develop their vocabulary, in particular academic vocabulary, and to improve their ability of lexical matching Besides, grammar should also be paid attention to as candidates are to deal with grammatical ambiguities in the actual test (Bax, 2013) Other strategies involved in the testing process can be familiarity with the format of the test, individual previous knowledge and a good velocity of reading (Ying, 2011)

V Test preparation

1 Definition of test preparation

According to Messick (1982), test preparation is defined as ―any intervention procedure specifically undertaken to improve test scores, whether by improving the skills measured by the test or by improving the skills for taking the test, or both‖

By the same token, Wikipedia (2017, para.1) regards test preparation (abbreviated Test Prep) or exam preparation as ―an educational course, tutoring service, educational material, or a learning tool designed to increase students‘ performance

on standardized tests‖ Briggs (2009) claimed three elements typically at the core of any method of test preparation: content review, item drill and practice, and an emphasis on specific test-taking and general test-wiseness According to Robb and Ercanbrack (1999), in recent times there have been abundant preparation programs for academic aptitude and language proficiency tests, which constitute a vast industry within the private educational sector Students attend such programs with a

strong desire for successful performance in the tests, and the higher the stakes of a test, the greater the desire for guided test preparation and practice To sum up, these definitions capture the ultimate goal of test preparation which is to improve students‘ test scores

2 Types of test preparation

There are many ways to categorize language test preparation Based on the nature of the preparation instruction, Anastasi (1981) grouped test preparation into three broad categories The first is called test-taking orientation, which helps examinees become familiar with the testing procedures and overcome anxieties due

to the strangeness of the test The second kind is coaching, which usually involves intense and short-term practice on similar item formats offered by either commercial companies or by school-based programs, and the third category is training in broadly applicable cognitive skills, which contributes to overall improvement of cognitive ability and thus to enhanced test performance

Powers (2012) identifies two test preparation kinds which include test familiarization and coaching Test familiarization is quite similar to test orientation given about 30 years ago by Anastasi (1989) because it is to supply test-takers-to-be with general skills for test taking and to get them familiarized with the procedures required to take a particular test Participants of this kind of test preparation are exposed to the kinds of item formats they will encounter, the guidelines of guess making and time management Powers (2012, p.2) suggests that preparation of this sort is generally considered desirable as it is supposed to get individuals to master the mechanics of test taking; as a result, it will allow them to focus on, and accurately demonstrate, the skills and abilities under tested Meanwhile, the other is named coaching which is typically associated with short-term efforts aimed at teaching test-taking strategies or ―tricks‖ to enable test takers to ―beat the test‖; that

is, to take advantage of flaws in the test or in the testing system (e.g., never choose a particular answer choice if a question has these characteristics…)

Montgomery & Lilly (2012) use the delivery mode to understand and study

test preparation; test preparation can be school-based, commercial-based, based, and book-based School-based test preparation is integrated into the curriculum and offered by classroom teachers within school settings Commercial-based test preparation is fee-charged short-term instructions operated by commercial agencies with the claim of effectively increasing students‘ test scores Computer-based test preparation is test preparation whose content is administered through a computer, where students have control of the speed, and the amount of test preparation they choose to engage in Book-based test preparation is structured

computer-on commercial publishers‘ practice books and test publishers‘ official guides

3 Previous studies on improvements of learners at test preparation language courses

As test preparation courses started to proliferate to live up to the demands of IELTS candidates, interest in assessing the effectiveness of these courses rose in response However, studies carried out up to date show little or no impacts of pre-test preparation and reading score In fact, the gains in test results are more frequently rather explicit in Listening module, which could be put down to the fact that students have more practice during the courses (Elder and O‘Loughlin, 2003; Read and Hayes, 2003) Other researchers found relations between preparation courses and improvements on writing scores, in both Academic and General Training modules (Green, 2007; Rao et al., 2003) As a result, there seems to be a dearth in research specifically examining the impacts of test preparation courses on IELTS Academic Reading among non-native candidates so far

VI Review of previous studies on reading comprehension strategies

among Vietnamese learners

In Vietnamese educational system‘s mainstream curriculum for English learning, reading is always considered as an indispensable component Students are exposed to reading from an early stage of education, and reading is used as a tool for acquiring other language skills Despite this fact, reading comprehension strategies and strategy instruction have yet to be paid proper and sufficient attention

Studies conducted so far show that students of different levels lack reading comprehension strategies Pham (2016) found out that 7th graders in one school of Hanoi do not have the capability of reading comprehension, thus having difficulties understanding the meaning of the reading text and struggle with answering questions related This is not much better among university students Le (2004) recognized this issue with his students, both English majors and non-majors, reporting their common response ―I read the text carefully, trying to remember as much as I can I answer the questions when I have finished reading the text If I cannot answer any question, I have to read the text again‖ (p 10) In other studies, Vietnamese tertiary students are found to use strategies in reading at a medium level and frequency (Nguyen, 2013), and this includes Vietnamese students studying higher education abroad (Hoang, 2016)

In an attempt to seek reasons for this lack of reading comprehension strategy used among Vietnamese students, Ho (2013) unveiled that there is a great stress on vocabulary and understanding vocabulary in reading texts Teachers spent most of their class time explaining new words, and students depended heavily on the use of dictionary to help them understand the text and do related exercises

From these previous findings, the researcher found it necessary to carry out a study to investigate the effects of reading comprehension strategies and test-taking strategies on reading results in general and particularly on the results of IELTS Reading test

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes in details the context of the study, the participants, instruments of the study as well as the procedure which the research follows to seek answers to research questions

I Context of the study

1 Setting of the study

The study was conducted at AMES English Language Center, a school providing English courses to learners of various purposes With examination language courses, AMES offers intensive IELTS preparation courses for the four modules of the test: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing The ultimate goal of the IELTS preparation courses in AMES is to help the test-takers get ready with the test, in terms of examination techniques, which complies with the requirements of the IELTS preparation course according to the official checklist The Reading preparation course investigated in this study aims to teach learners a range of reading strategies and test-taking strategies officially entailed in the IELTS Reading Test, thereby fulfilling the candidates‘ expectations

2 The IELTS Intensive Reading Course

The IELTS Intensive Reading Course at AMES English Language Center is designed for students who have already obtained the level of IELTS Reading band score 4.0 or above (equivalent to B1 level of CEFR), and students who have finished the 30-hour Basic Reading Course at the center In Basic Reading Course,

students are taught fundamental reading strategies, namely Identifying key words;

Previewing and Predicting; Skimming for main ideas; Scanning for specific information; Guessing unknown vocabulary; Understanding text organization; and Identifying facts and opinions The lectures last for 12 hours and students‘ practice

is expected to take up another 18 hours

The Reading Preparation Course is a four-week block of 42 hours in total Every week students study three and a half hours, including two hours of instruction

in-class and an hour and a half of self-practice in the Independent Learning Center with the assistance of tutors if needed

The Cambridge IELTS collection, i.e Cambridge IELTS 10, 11, 12 is used

as core teaching materials This collection is printed by an authorized publishing house (Cambridge University Press) It contains authentic IELTS papers from Cambridge ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), providing sample examination practice

The teachers also design their own lesson plans for classroom activities During the four weeks of the course, the general aim is to familiarize candidates with the test, moving from teaching strategies to practicing the test items itself On the first day, the teacher outlines the course and gives students a general overview

of the IELTS reading test Then different question types in the test are gradually introduced, providing the students with tactics and strategies on test-taking and giving them the opportunity to practice As most of the students are non-English major upper secondary school and college students, and have English proficiency at Intermediate Level according to The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), the teacher teaches them in both English and Vietnamese

The procedure of a typical lesson follows the Beckman‘s (2002) suggestions

of steps for the teacher to conduct an effective reading strategy instruction, including 5 main stages At the first stage, with a warm-up activity, teachers at AMES provide their students with an understanding of the reading task being discussed, its definition with its particular features Then, the combined strategies needed for the task are under investigated – why they are important, when they can

be used and how to use them Modelling plays a crucial role in most lessons with teachers‘ clear illustration of who to perform the strategies step-by-step After that, the teacher usually gives her students sample practices of the question item assisted with practice time in groups and/or individually The teacher monitors, does the scaffolding by provides cues, and gives feedback During this practice time, students are required to say it out loud how they follow the strategies that can help

them find the correct answers to the target question items since they will likely use the strategy more frequently and efficiently if they see how it works for them Practice results in automaticity so the student does not have to ―think‖ about using the strategy For further practice outside of the classroom, the teacher also encourages her students to continuously use and generalize the strategies Students are encouraged to try the strategies in other learning situations, both at home and in the Independent Learning Center

Lesson Lecture Topics Teaching points Duration

1 Course opening

 Administering questionnaire

 Administering pre-test

 Overview of the course

 Introduction to the IELTS test

 Introduction to IELTS Reading – Academic Module

3

Task Type 2 –

Notes – Table – Flow

chart Completion

 Organizing words or each type

 The amount of information needed

 Apply verb tenses

 Questions are in sequence

 Spelling

2 hours of lecture 1.5 hours of practice

4 Task Type 3 –

Labelling a diagram

 Organizing words or each type

 The amount of information needed

 Apply verb tenses

 Questions are in sequence

 Spelling

2 hours of lecture 1.5 hours of practice

5

Task Type 4 –

True/False/Not Given

& Yes/No/Not Given

 Two types of key words

 Types of qualifiers

 The amount of information needed

 Fact and opinion

 Questions are in sequence

2 hours of lecture 1.5 hours of practice

9 Task Type 8 –

Pick from a list

 Identify key words

 The amount of information needed

2 hours of lecture 1.5 hours of practice

10 Task Type 9 –

Multiple choice

 Identify key words

 Questions are in sequence

2 hours of lecture 1.5 hours of practice

11 Task Type 10 –

Summary completion

 Organizing words or each type

 The amount of information needed

 Apply verb tenses

 Questions are in sequence

2 hours of lecture 1.5 hours of practice

Duration of training: 42 hours over 4 weeks (10.5 hours/week)

Table 2 IELTS Reading Course with explicit strategy instruction

II Research Questions

The review of previous literature indicates that explicit reading strategy instruction can offer a solution to tackle the afore-mentioned problems In this study, the researcher wishes to conduct a thorough investigation into the effects of reading and test-taking strategy instruction on the performance and results of students‘ reading, especially in IELTS Reading, in the context of AMES English Language Center Accordingly, the three research questions are as follows:

1 To what extent does the explicit reading comprehension strategy instruction help to improve learners’ use of strategies under test condition?

2 To what extent do learners improve their IELTS band scores of Academic Reading module after completing the test preparation course with explicit reading strategy instruction at AMES English Language Center?

3 What are students’ attitudes towards the explicit strategy instruction in IELTS Reading preparation course?

III Methodology

It has been decided that the study will make use of both quantitative and qualitative data This is to serve the ultimate goal of identifying the level of improvements the students acquire after taking the reading course with explicit strategy instruction Quantitative data are to be collected with the medium of two questionnaires, pre-test and post-test Meanwhile, qualitative data will be obtained through the means of an interview after the post-test

1 Participants

The research sample comes from two out of three classes of the intensive IELTS preparation course (for adults) at AMES English Language Center, more specifically at AMES Ba Dinh Branch It should be noted that the two classes are run by the researcher - a teacher of six years teaching IELTS Reading The number

of students attending these two classes is 30 students, of which 19 are females and

11 are males, and their age ranges from 16 to 23 years old The learners come from non-English major upper secondary schools and colleges in Hanoi and are required

to have English proficiency at Level B1-Intermediate (CEFR), equivalent to band score 4.0 to 5.0 in IELTS (see Figure 3) based on the placement test before taking any preparation courses in AMES The expected outcome of the course is that the learners will achieve IELTS band score of 5.0 to 6.0 (equivalent to CEFR level B2)

The first part of the questionnaire after the pre-test helped to reveal background information about the participants in terms of their jobs, level of exposure to English and reasons for taking the IELTS test Table 3 provides the first two categories of information, from which we can see that about half of the subjects are students, and nearly two-thirds of them have regular exposure to English reading This could be an advantage for them in acquiring reading strategies

Table 3 Occupation and exposure to English of learners

Based on the information presented in Table 4, it can be seen that the most common reason for the participants to take the IELTS Test is to study abroad, with

10 out of 30 students, or 33.3% This is conjugant with the intended aim of the

test-to assess the readiness of the candidates for academic purposes (Harrison, 1983) Moreover, IELTS is widely accepted as a proof of English language skills used for recruitment or admission purposes (Hallows, Lisboa and Unwin, 2006), with a percentage of 43% among the selected reasons Nevertheless, there are learners who wish to take the IELTS Test to raise their overall language level (23%)

Reasons for taking the IELTS Test

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Improving English

Finding a job in Vietnam

2 Instruments

a Pre-test and post-test

The aim of the pre-test is to identify learners‘ entrance level of English proficiency, the reading module in particular before they were enrolled in the course Meanwhile, the post-test will help the researcher identify how much the learners have improved their IELTS reading test-taking strategies and band scores immediately after they finish the preparation course at the center The contents of these reading tests are compiled by AMES academic development team based on globally standardized IELTS materials by an authorized publishing house and organization: Cambridge University Press, British Council and then revised by former IELTS examiners working at the center The reading texts were carefully chosen from less popular IELTS Preparation materials (provided by British Council for valued parrnership and business development) so that it helps to assure the objectivity of the test In fact, none of the participants reported encountering the reading passages before As a consequence, the level of difficulty and quality of these two tests are assured to be closely similar to those of an official IELTS test

b Questionnaires

The participants are required to complete two questionnaires One is administered after the subjects finish their pre-tests and the other after they finish the post-tests Both of the questionnaires were designated in English as students of the course have reached the B1 level of CEFR or IELTS Reading band score 4.0 and above However, during the procedure of administering the questionnaires, the researcher encouraged them to raise questions at any point they were not clear about

c Questionnaire after pre-test (Questionnaire A)

The questionnaire after the pre-test is divided into two parts Part One focuses on personal information of the students, including age, gender, home and school location, and background education These questions are easy and straightforward, which kept the students keep moving on to Part Two Part Two – Reading Strategies is consisted of two smaller sections The first one deals with

specific information on how often each of the students uses different reading strategies These strategies were adapted and developed from the checklist proposed

by Farr, Pritchard and Smitten (1990), Rupp, Ferne and Choi (2006) and Cohen & Upton (2007) They were already classified into the three groups, which are

General Strategies, Text-related Strategies, and Question-related Strategies with an

aim of facilitating the data analysis procedure The questions on reading strategies are presented in close-ended form, more specifically they are constructed with the use of Likert scales, with number 0 represents the smallest frequency – never (0%), and number 5 represents the largest frequency, i.e always (100%) Second, there are two open-ended questions at the end of the questionnaire addressing any problems students encounter while completing the reading tasks of the pre-tests

d Questionnaire after the post-test (Questionnaire B)

The questionnaire after the post-test (Questionnaire B) begins with the table

of 18 Likert-scale question items similar to Part Two of the questionnaire after the pre-test (Questionnaire A) This is because these two instruments were created in order to evaluate the changes in reading strategies among students before and after the course Also, the following part of Questionnaire B involves more open-ended than in the other one as the research wishes to highlight the focus on the differences only The five opened questions enabled the researcher to gain further insights into students‘ progress in reading strategy use in reading performance as well as their attitudes towards the explicit strategy training delivered throughout the course

e Interview

Two out of 30 students were selected randomly and were asked questions about whether they were familiar with the strategies before the instruction, whether researchers' modeling of the strategies helped them follow the strategies more easily, which strategies they found most useful, and how they felt about the usefulness of the strategy instruction program and its effect on their reading performance in the IELTS Reading This would provide an in-depth understanding about students' attitudes towards the explicit instruction on reading strategies, thus helps with seeking the answer for Research Question 3

f Procedures of data collection

The survey will be designed and distributed to the subjects by the researcher

in order to ensure the understanding of the participants in every item of the questionnaire Once reviewed and accepted by the supervisor, the researcher will make 30 copies of the questionnaire to disseminate to the learners of three IELTS test preparation classes at AMES English Center They will be instructed thoroughly so that all of the questionnaires will be completed properly and as objectively as possible These papers will be collected after that for the purpose of analysis procedure

IV Procedures of data analysis

The detailed process of data analysis is as follows:

Stage 1: Collect and analyze the general information of the learners

Stage 2: Collect and analyze learners' feedback on questions related to IELTS reading test-taking strategies

Stage 3: Collecting and analyzing the results of the entry and exit test after completing the course

The data collected will be investigated in the chapter of Results and Discussion

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter presents the results from and the interpretation of the data collected from the questionnaires Specifically, the presentation will deal with the analysis of the learners‘ pre- and post-test scores, their improvements on IELTS reading & test-taking strategies as well as their attitudes towards the explicit reading strategy instruction

I Results addressing research question 1: Improvements on IELTS reading strategies

In the second part of Questionnaire A, question 1 explores the learners‘ knowledge and usage of the IELTS reading strategies before taking the course so as

to answer Research Question 1 This question is consisted of 18 close-ended items which asked the students to mark their typically used strategies while doing an IELTS reading test, using a form of Likert scale with 6 scales from 0-5, equivalent

to from never to always

Reading Strategies

Before the course After the course

I General strategies

1 Read the instructions carefully Be

attentive to word limits 2.5 1.137 3.1 1.269 0.6

2 Manage my time on each section of the

3 Set a purpose of reading to answer the

questions only rather than trying to

comprehend the entire reading passage

1.9 0.995 2.5 0.974 0.6

4 Don‘t expect to read and understand every

II Text-related strategies

5 Make predictions about what I am going

to read by looking at the title, any visual

aids, and headings that go with the passage

2.5 1.358 2.3 1.579 -0.2

6 Relate information from the passage to

what I already know about the subject area 1.9 0.995 2.37 1.129 0.47

7 Look for how the passage is organized by

underlining or highlighting any key topic,

signal words/phrases

2.5 1.432 2.97 1.45 0.47

8 Pay special attention to the first one or 1.9 0.923 2.23 1.135 0.33